The amount of work that had been put in for the tribulation surprised me. We’d been redirected to a different chamber, where Xian Yue, the moon spirit, was making some final adjustments to the most complicated array I’d ever seen. Multiple talismans with intricate characters, painted in ink brimming with Qi from crushed spirit stones dotted the chamber. Lines had been drawn on the ground with some more bowls filled with herbs and items full of Qi set in a way to channel the Qi in specific directions.
Beside Xian Yue, I noticed Zhou Fang, the lord’s elder son, standing inside. The boy bowed to his father deeply, before giving me a slight nod of acknowledgement as we all walked into the chamber.
One by one, all of us walked in, taking seats at the respective eight headed formation of the ward. The Lord took the central place, at the top of the formation, Yin, Zhang, Zhou Fang, Labby, the Old Man, Yan Yun and Tian Feng all following after him.
I was directed to the centre, to a special side seat reserved for me, as everyone was faced in my direction.
“To activate the ward, focus on your dantian, and bind yourself under the ward, to join it,” Elder Tian Feng said.
I glanced towards Yin in confusion, who looked back at me with a concerned expression.
“She’ll be bound by the others. You don’t need to worry about her,” Elder Tian Feng commented, noticing my glance.
I nodded, closing my eyes, as I focused on my core. The Qi around me swirled, as I felt everyone else reaching out to their dantians as well. The flow of energy was a mesmerising pattern that swirled and danced through the wards set around the chamber, and for a brief moment, I felt connected to everyone around me.
With a pulse, the ward activated, as a bright light pulsed through the chamber. Characters shimmered around, crawling over the walls, as they formed barriers around us in an octagonal shape. The lines beneath us lit up, showing the eight headed formation in all its glory as a boundary of shimmering characters rising into the air, and glowing with a dim flicker surrounded us from all sides.
“The ward is in place,” the Lord said, glancing at me.
I nodded, looking around at everyone facing me, before taking a breath.
“In order to explain everything, I’ll need to start a while back,” I said, trying to sort everything in my head. “The truth of the world begins in a time period far before the rise of the Empire. It begins with the creation of existence itself, and the nature of the world. The world we now live in is a lie. A fabrication created by the division of the energy of the Earth and the Heavens.”
Qi pulsed at my words, the air vibrating around me. I heard the heavens rumble, growling. Whoever was in charge up there did not like where this was going.
“Long ago, at the conception of the world, chaos had been split into two, creating the sky and the earth. It formed the cycle of life and death, which had been bound by a tree. The tree of unity, whose roots permeated and gave a resting place to the dead, and whose branches harboured life, in the skies,” I said, feeling my words resonating with power.
Every spirit around me shook as my words changed something deeply in their spirit. A powerful golden bolt of lightning crashed through the roof of the chamber, striking the ward. The golden characters flared, bright and powerful, as they distributed the bolt across the perimeter, letting the energy disperse and flow into our cores.
I continued undeterred. “Of this union, there had been neither Gu, nor Qi. But Chi. The Path of Immortality was walked not by cultivating merely one side of the cycle, but by an acceptance of both. The half for Qi would temper the mind, and the heavenly attribute, and the half for Gu would temper the body, or the Earthly attribute. Thus, the cycle was whole.”
Another bolt struck, as a roaring storm formed outside. The energy of the bolt was distributed again, flooding into me, yet I felt a bite in my core from the onslaught nonetheless. Rain pouring down like a hurricane as I heard screams echoing from the entire manor. Winds howled and screamed, with the wrath of nature behind it.
“But a long time ago, life was cut from death, this life, then formed Qi, yet what it left behind in its wake was Gu. Death. Miasma. This was the price for immortality, of the eternal throne and chase that guides cultivation within the empire. For each cultivator that walks the path of immortality, the world goes into disbalance, creating miasma, creating death, and creating demons.”
The heavens roared. As a furious golden-red bolt of lighting struck. The glowing ward flared, absorbing the blow, but the knockback was still felt. The ward was shuddering, but I could not stop now, not after I’d come this far.
All eyes were rooted on me, cores humming with Qi as they fuelled the ward. The truth was here, their spirits sang with mine. They felt it as keenly as I did. The truth of our world.
“It is us who fuel the eternal war. Cultivators, immortals, our empire. The false Path we walk is the source of the long lasting misery that exists, and takes so many lives. To have cut out Death from Life came at a price, a price that we now pay,” I said, my teeth clenched as I sensed the fury of the heavens boiling over.
Three bolts of lightning struck at once, almost blasting through the ward. I did not stop. I could not stop.
“I found this because my soul was split in two, and one half took on Gu, while the other, took on Qi. I split my core in two upon this revelation, one with Qi, and the other, Gu. It was the merging of these two that finally allowed me to obtain Chi, the source of energy that had formed all of creation.”
Another bolt, and I felt the ward crack. A bolt of lightning entered the ward, reaching towards me, but the Lord raised his hand, as the bolt was directed away towards him instead. With a bright flash, the tribulation roared, furious at the act.
“Continue,” the Lord said, and I nodded.
“I saw the cycle that had existed, and the unity that governed life and death. I met the spirit of the tree that had the domain of the cycle of rebirth, and found its blessing unto my spirit. Of that era, of the seed of change that blossomed into a new cycle, and a new tree of unity yet again, was born the First Law. The truth that had been hidden in the heavens, and our world,” I said, as another bolt struck the ward.
Fire erupted around us, the wind tearing through the walls. The Lord moves once again, diverting the bolt, as the ward cracked, characters blurring and energy flaring all over.
I closed my eyes, before opening them. A golden circle shone in my spirit, reaching to my eyes, as I channelled the First Law.
“With this, I found the truth. The First Law of Cultivation: Duality of Chi.”
The world erupted around me. Qi flooded my body, as if the air itself was trying to drown me within myself.
The heavens swirled, clouds spinning up above as a bolt thicker than the entire chamber we sat in struck down from the heavens. The barrier shattered, the energy far too overwhelming for me to even comprehend. I leapt, not thinking, as I grabbed Labby, pulsing my Chi to protect her.
Before I could realise what was happening, the Lord stood up.
“As Lord of the Seventh Peak, I, Zhou Li, accept the tribulation,” he proclaimed, opening his arms wide. There, in that moment, I felt the Lord’s strength, the strength of a man who carried one of the seven celestial peaks on his shoulders.
Overwhelming Qi pulsed over me, like the weight of a mountain itself. Briefly, I felt a sense for his Qi, finding it ten times as vast as mine, and far more dense. The energy flowed from the Lord, forming a shield over all of us.
The red bolt of the heavens stopped mid way, and then charged once more towards the lord as if finding a target for its fury. With a deafening explosion, the bolt struck, shattering the Lord’s shield.
Yin yelped, and jumped back and I moved, catching her from being blasted by the explosion. Zhang leapt towards me, trying to get me out of harm's way, but I directed him towards Yan Yun instead. The world around me shook and shuddered as if in anger, vibrating with fury as the Qi around them stirred restlessly.
Screams now filled the skies, servants, soldiers, and everyone running around in a frenzied panic at the tribulation, as the dust cloud roared over the ground around us.
“A divine tribulation! A divine tribulation has struck!”
I heard the screams distantly through ringing ears, though I didn’t know what the words meant. Feeling the pulses of energy, I coughed, my bones creaking in pain from the onslaught that had torn through the ward.
Finding myself as the dust settled, I looked around trying to see if everyone around me was fine or not.
My eyes found Elder Tian Feng, standing with Yin, Zhang and Yan Yun behind him. The shield he’d erected vanished as the elder let his Qi settle. Old Man stood nearby, standing in front of Zhou Fang, the lord’s son. A frown was set on his face, but I saw no harm visible on either of them.
Finally, my eyes went to the Lord. I watched him stand, gazing up at the heavens themselves. Blood dripped from his lips, his clothes burned from the lightning of the tribulation as smoke rose from his charred and burnt body.
With a cough, he fell to his knees and the Old Man and Tian Feng rushed to his side.
“It’s fine,” the Lord said, raising a hand as he stopped the two of them, his gaze back at the skies again. “So this… is the truth of our world. The truth of the heavens itself.”
Gu rose around the Lord’s body, rising from the earth and flowing into him, as Chi formed, yet the energy crumbled and collapsed under the mountain of Qi resting upon his shoulders, unable to even take shape or form for more than a moment.
I felt my throat clam, as I watched an uncertain emotion pass through the Lord’s mind. A moment later, as if finding his energy again, the lord stood, before directing his gaze towards me. “We are tied to this path, to this empire and its people. It is too late for us to walk something new. But for the rest of you?” He glanced around, eyes resting on each of us, before they met mine. “Can it be done?”
I dipped my head, before looking around. Though none had awakened to Chi, the seeds of change had been planted. I sensed it in my spirit.
Something stirred within my soul, as I felt the tree of unity grow a new leaf.
“It will be done, m’lord,” I replied, bowing my head.
The Lord nodded, before coughing blood once more. “We need warriors, Lu Jie. There is something wrong with the demons. They… no longer seem to be the mindless beasts they had once been. Our foe has become cunning, and is changing its ways. If we remain stagnant… I fear this empire will not stand for much longer.”
“Lord Zhou, you need to rest. Your body is in no condition to stand,” the Old man protested.
“Forgive this offence my Lord, but I’m taking you to your chambers,” Elder Tian Feng said, reaching out to grasp the Lord’s shoulders. The Lord did not protest, letting himself move with the man.
I stood, watching the wreck around me, my mind barely able to parse everything that had happened. I’d shared the first law, and its powers, the truth that the Heavens had tried so desperately to hide.
My gaze found the Old Man’s who looked back at me with a conflicted expression. "What you’ve shared today… it will change everything.”
I nodded, feeling the weight of my actions settle on my heart. I knew it would.